Erin Brockovich
Essay Preview: Erin Brockovich
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ERIN BROCKOVICH After being seriously injured in a traffic accident in Reno, my kids and I moved back to Southern California where I hired Jim Vititoe of Masry & Vititoe to handle my auto accident case in 1991. Not long after my case was resolved, I was hired to work at the law firm as a file clerk. While organizing papers in a pro bono real estate case, I found medical records in the file that caught my eye. After getting permission from one of the firms principals, Ed Masry, I began to research the matter.
My investigation eventually established that the health of countless people who lived in and around Hinkley, California, in the 1960s, 70s and 80s had been severely compromised by exposure to toxic Chromium 6.
The Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Companys Compressor Station. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spearheaded by me and Ed Masry, the giant utility paid the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents. Got hexavalent chromium? Based on the true story of a twice-divorced mother working as a low-level secretary at a Los Angeles law firm, a chronicle of a woman, without a law degree, who takes it upon herself to fight powerful corporate forces. Hired out of sympathy after her lawyer lost her personal injury suit, Brockovich stumbled upon the cover-up involving contaminated water in a small desert community, while working at the small law firm. Brockovich tracks a case of water poisoning created by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) and champions it all the way up the judicial ladder–becoming instrumental in rallying the over 600 plaintiffs and in helping them win the largest class-action suit of its type.
In a world where heroes are often in short supply, the story of Erin Brockovich is an inspirational reminder of the power of the human spirit. Her passion, tenacity and steadfast desire to fight for the rights of the underdog defied the odds…her victory made even more sweet by the fact that while helping others, she in turn helped herself.
Erin Brockovich is a stirring, funny and unconventional drama based on true events, starring two-time Academy Award* nominee Julia Roberts as the twice-divorced mother of three young children who sees an injustice, takes on the bad guy and wins.
With no money, no job and no prospects on the horizon, Erin Brockovich (Roberts) is a woman in a tight spot. Following a car accident in which Erin is not at fault, she finds herself even worse off when her attorney fails to land her any kind of settlement. With nowhere else to turn, Erin pleads with her attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney) to hire her at his law firm. It is there, while working, that Erin stumbles upon some medical records placed in real estate files. Confused, she begins to question the connection. She convinces Ed to allow her to investigate, where she discovers a cover-up involving contaminated water in a local community which is causing devastating illnesses among its residents.
Although the local citizens are initially leery of becoming involved, Erins persistence and the personal interest she takes in their lives makes them listen. A kindred spirit, Erin is one of them, and her ability to connect with them on their level makes them comfortable, ultimately earning their trust. Helping her out is her next door neighbor George (Aaron Eckhart), a Harley Davidson biker whose friendship and support allows her the time to pursue the case. Going door to door, she signs up over 600 plaintiffs, and Erin and Ed, with the help of a major law firm, go on to receive the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history.$333 million. By triumphing over insurmountable odds, she is able to prove herself, and reinvent her life.
Based on a true story, the film shows its title character protagonist taking on Pacific Gas & Electric, a $30 billion utilities company, and legally compelling it in 1993 to pay 600 victims of its toxic pollution of a California communitys water supply the sum of $333 million, a record settlement for a case of its kind.
Erin is portrayed with reported fidelity to the real-life original by the irresistibly irrepressible Julia Roberts as a salty-tongued, twice-divorced mother of three young children. Her costume du jour features considerable cleavage and leggy exposure. In short, the lady dresses, acts and talks like a tramp.
Erins judicial triumph is all the more remarkable in that she never had any formal education as a lawyer or even a paralegal. Indeed, she is the newly fashionable feminist heroine, the single mother who dropped out of school early to get married, and then found herself stranded with no career or even job skills when her husband(s) abandoned her. Erins is happily one of the rare cases of a virtually impoverished single mother getting a second chance to show she had the right stuff though she had to beg for a menial job with no benefits just to get her foot in the door.
When she discovers many medical reports mixed in with real estate transactions for a pro bono case her firm has undertaken, she visits the small California desert town of Hinkley, dominated and befouled by the massive installations of P.G.&E. There she meets cancer-ridden Donna Jensen (Marg Helgenberger) and her similarly afflicted family. Erins down-to-earth manner enables her to bond with Donna, and the other Hinkley inhabitants and even the initially hostile Pamela Duncan (Cherry Jones), who has become suspicious of all strangers after having been shamefully deceived by P.G.&E.
There is a nice balance in the film between the social issues and the human relationships, which is to say that Mr. Soderbergh and his collaborators stay out of the courtroom as much as possible while they explore with scrupulous detail the different places where people live and work. The feeling of moral triumph is expressed with a minimum of fuss and fanfare, quietly from person to person. Victory does not come easy for the hard-working Erin. She neglects her children, and they become distractingly unruly. She risks losing her on-again, off-again boyfriend, a biker next door named George (Aaron Eckhart), even after he displays a remarkably paternal solicitude for her children. More than once, she steps on the toes of her cranky but warmhearted benefactor employer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney). Yet even when Erin is on a self-destructive streak of hot-tempered profanity, she never becomes irritating or aggravating, simply because she never ceases to be self-mockingly funny. Her familiarly volcanic big-star smile is as joyous as ever, and takes much of the curse off the white-hat, black-hat